Mike Holloway

2010, 2011 and 2012 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Men’s Indoor Head Coach of the Year

2012 and 2013 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Men’s Outdoor Head Coach of the Year

Florida head coach Mike Holloway, who was named the first head coach of the combined men’s and women’s program on June 19, 2007, has directed a clear course for success both on and off the track. In 2013, the Gators came up big once again, capturing their second consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championship.

Trailing Texas A&M by nine points heading into the final event, the Gators, with a lineup of Najee Glass, Hugh Graham, Jr., Dedric Dukes and Arman Hall, claimed the 4x400-meter relay title (3:01.34) and the 10 points that came along with it. A&M – in the same race – dropped the baton but rebounded to finish eighth, giving them one point and putting them in a tie for the national title with the Gators.

The Gator men’s 4x100-meter relay was first on the track on Championship Saturday and started things off right, capturing the fifth 4x1 NCAA outdoor crown in program history. The foursome of freshman Antwan Wright, Graham, Jr., senior Leonardo Seymore and Dukes got it done for the Gators, edging out runner-up Alabama by a hundredth of a second, 38.53 to 38.54.

Defending his NCAA Championship was senior triple jumper Omar Craddock, who became the first Gator since Olympic gold medalist Christian Taylor to win back-to-back titles in the event (2010, 11). Florida has captured eight combined men’s triple jump national crowns in the last five years.

For the team’s efforts, Holloway earned his second straight and fifth overall USTFCCCA National Men’s Head Coach of the Year honor.

Indoors, the Gator men were the NCAA runners-up, and as of the end of the 2013 season, the Gators have finished in the top three in 14 of the last 22 national meets (indoors and outdoors).

Junior Eddie Lovett etched his name in the record books on the second day of the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, setting a new meet record in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with a new personal best and school record of 7.50. Lovett is now fourth all-time in collegiate history and brings home Florida’s first 60-meter hurdle title in program history. It’s the second hurdle crown in Florida school history, as Earl Diamond won the 55-meter hurdles at the 1989 NCAA Indoor Championships.

Sophomore Marquis Dendy captured his first individual NCAA crown, leaping to a new personal best and school record of 8.28m/27-2 to take home the title. The two-time SEC Champion indoors in the event, Dendy fouled his first two jumps before leaping 8.10m/26-7 on his third and final jump of the first flight to take the lead into the finals. On the first jump of the finals, Dendy improved to 8.23m/27-0 to extend his lead. Getting the crowd into it, Dendy got Randal Tyson Track Center on its feet and clapping, using the energy and one of his best approaches of the night to jump 8.28m/27-2.

Dendy is Florida’s first-ever men’s long jump champion and won the Gators’ eighth horizontal jumps national title in program history, all coming in the last four years.

It could be argued that 2012 was the finest overall season in the history of the program.

The 2012 men swept the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history. They became just the sixth program in NCAA history to have completed the team title sweep. In winning their third-consecutive NCAA Indoor team title, the Gators became just the third different program in NCAA history to win three consecutive NCAA Indoor Men’s Championships. The Gators swept the 2012 NCAA 400m and triple jump titles, as juniors Tony McQuay and Omar Craddock each took home two individual NCAA titles in 2012. The Gators totaled 21 All-America honors during the course of the 2012 season, with 24 first team and 12 second team members.

Senior Jeff Demps claimed his third consecutive NCAA Indoor 60 meter title, setting the school record of 6.52 in the preliminaries of the NCAA Indoor Championships. Demps became the first three-time indoor NCAA spring champion since 1988 and just the third ever in NCAA history. Demps went on to earn a silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games as a part of the men’s 4x100-meter relay, having run the opening leg in the preliminary round.

Junior Tony McQuay swept the 400 meter titles at the NCAA Championships, while anchoring the 4x400-meter relay to victory at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. McQuay was a finalist for the 2012 Bowerman and a silver medalist at the U.S. Olympic Trials (400 meters) and 2012 Olympic Games (4x400 relay).

Holloway was named the 2012 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Men’s Head Coach of the Year both indoors and outdoors, marking the third and fourth national coach-of-the-year honors of his career. He was the USTFCCCA’s South Region Women’s Head Coach of the Year indoors and the SEC Women’s Indoor Head Coach of the Year.

The 2012 women took home their second SEC team title in three years and the seventh team title in program history. The Gator women won with depth, scoring 132 points at the meet with only one individual title. Florida turned in a runner-up finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships, scoring 138 points. The Gators’ 4x400-meter relay earned All-America honors both indoors and outdoors at the 2012 NCAA Championships, while the women won seven individual conference titles, six of those coming at the SEC Outdoor Championships. Overall, the Gators earned a total of 23 All-America honors during the season.

The 2011 men claimed the 2011 NCAA Indoor team title, becoming just the fourth different program in NCAA history to win back-to-back NCAA Indoor Men’s Championships .The Gators placed third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, totaling 53 total team points to mark their third consecutive top-three outdoor finish. Florida jumpers took the 2011 NCAA triple jump titles, with Will Claye winning the indoor and Christian Taylor successfully defending his outdoor crown. The Gators totaled 36 All-America honors during the course of the 2011 season, with 24 first team and 12 second-team members.

Holloway was named the 2011 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Men’s Head Coach of the Year indoors, marking the second national coach-of-the-year honor of his career. He was also honored as the USTFCCCA Men’s Indoor South Region Head Coach of the Year.

Sophomore Jeff Demps took home his second consecutive NCAA 60 meter title in 2011, setting a then-school record of 6.53. Demps also won the SEC Championship in the event and anchored Florida’s SEC Championship team outdoors in the 4x100-meter relay.

The 2010 Gators, rallying behind the motto “Finish the Mission,” posted four top-four national finishes for the first time in the history of the track and field program. The highlight of that season was the first NCAA Indoor Championship in the history of the Florida men’s program, achieved at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark. The Gators scored 57 total team points en route to the victory and defeated second-place Oregon and Texas A&M by 13 points.

The 2010 men, who claimed their first Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championship since 1987, capped off their season with a runner-up finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Over the course of the season, Florida captured five NCAA individual championships. The men’s 4x100-meter relay squad, directly coached by Holloway, captured its second consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championship.

Holloway’s pupil Jeff Demps was part of three individual NCAA Championships during the 2010 campaign. He anchored the winning 4x100-meter relay squad and won national titles in the 60-meter dash indoors (6.57) and the 100-meter dash outdoors (9.96). Demps’ performances drew national attention, as he was named one of 10 finalists for The Bowerman, track and field’s highest honor.

Holloway’s dynamic relay corps set school records in both the 4x200m (1:20.38) and the 4x400m (3:00.31), both set at the 66th Pepsi Florida Relays. His 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 quartets all won ACCUSPLIT relay awards for having recorded the fastest time in the nation over the course of the season.

Holloway was named the 2010 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Men’s Head Coach of the Year, marking the first national coach-of-the-year honor of his career. He was the USTFCCCA’s South Region Men’s and Women’s Head Coach of the Year both indoors and outdoors. Additionally, he was the SEC Women’s Indoor Head Coach of the Year and the SEC Men’s Outdoor Head Coach of the Year.

The 2010 Florida women posted a third-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the second-highest placing in school history next to a runner-up showing in 1992. With four athletes scoring all of the Gators’ points at that meet, Florida tallied 40 team points and won three NCAA individual national championships. The Gators, who were fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships, won the 2010 SEC Indoor Championships in February, scoring 110 total team points.

The 2009 campaign left added motivation for Holloway’s squads in 2010. The Gator men charted second-place finishes at every major championship meet, an impressive feat that left Florida hungry for more. As an underdog, the UF women won the 2009 SEC Outdoor Championship and posted their second consecutive top-10 finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Holloway is entering his 12th season as the head coach of the men’s track and field program, which boasts over 500 All-America honors and more than 50 individual NCAA Championships in its history. In his five years directing the men’s program alone, Holloway oversaw seven individual and relay NCAA titles, four runner-up finishes at the NCAA Championships and two NCAA East Regional titles. He is beginning his sixth season leading a storied women’s program that won the 1992 NCAA Indoor Championship and has captured 12 SEC Championships in its history.

Numbers like those put the Gators on the level of one of the most dominant programs in NCAA history, and Holloway is a tremendous reason why Florida is synonymous with the top teams in the nation. Those figures don’t even take into account his seven seasons as one of the top sprint and hurdle assistant coaches in the country.

In his 18 seasons at Florida, Holloway has guided athletes to the following accomplishments:

That’s a lifetime of coaching honors and Holloway has accomplished those feats in a decade-and-a-half.

Holloway, who was named Florida's men's track and field head coach in 2002 after serving as an assistant at UF since 1995, is one of the premier sprint coaches in today's track and field world, and has developed the Florida men into one of the top collegiate sprint programs in America since he took control of the reins in 1995.

The list of accolades and accomplishments Holloway’s athletes have earned at both the professional and collegiate levels is staggering and continues to grow with each successive year. He has coached seven athletes to a total of 13 Olympic or World Championships medals, seven of which have been gold.

Most recently, Holloway was with Team USA in London for the 2012 Olympic Games, coaching the men’s sprints and relays for the United States. Holloway coached three-time NCAA Champion Tony McQuay to a silver medal in the men’s 4x400-meter relay and five-time NCAA Champion Jeff Demps to a silver medal in the men’s 4x100-meter relay.

Holloway is currently the head coach for the U.S. men as they prepare to compete at the 2013 IAAF World Outdoor Championships.

Holloway was in Osaka, Japan, with former Gator Kerron Clement for the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Championships when the latter won gold in the 400mH, claiming just the second individual world track championship by an athlete with ties to the UF men’s program. In 2005, he guided Clement, then a 19-year-old phenom, to a world record in the indoor 400m (44.57), as Michael Johnson's 10-year-old record fell. Later in the year, Clement won the U.S. Outdoor Track & Field Championships title in the 400m hurdles with the fastest time run in the event since 1998 (47.24) before he claimed his second-straight U.S. 400m hurdle title in 2006.

In 2004, four current or former Holloway-coached athletes competed in the Olympics, with former Gator Bernard Williams earning a silver medal in the 200m. In addition, Clement set a record in the 400m hurdles at the 2004 World Junior Championships. In all, nearly 15 athletes who have trained under Holloway participated at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

After being named head coach of the Gator men's track & field program following the 2002 season, Holloway quickly set out to instill in the rest of the athletes the same philosophy and work ethic that has made his sprinters so successful. As a result, the Florida men won the 2003 NCAA East Regional team title, finished second at the 2003 SEC Indoor Championships and were sixth at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships. For his efforts at the East Regional meet, Holloway was named the East Region Coach of the Year.

In 2004, Holloway coached UF to runner-up finishes at all five championship meets (NCAA indoors and outdoors, SEC indoors and outdoors and the NCAA East Regional), while his athletes claimed six SEC titles, three NCAA titles and earned 31 All-America honors that year. Things kept chugging right along in 2005, when the Gators duplicated their efforts from 2004 by taking second at all five championship meets. Florida racked up 27 All-America honors, four NCAA titles and seven SEC crowns along the way.

In 2006, Holloway mentored a pair of Gator freshmen, guiding them to monumental achievements, as Jeremy Hall became the first freshman in more than 30 years to claim the SEC 60m title and Calvin Smith earned indoor All-America honors in the 400m before going on to achieve the same feat outdoors. The latter also became just the second athlete in school history to win the SEC outdoor 400m crown as a freshman.

Holloway’s tenure as an assistant coach, however, was no less decorated than his time at the head of the men’s program. He added the first individual national title to his list of accomplishments in 1999, and by the end of the 2000 season, he had added two more national championships in events Florida had never been able to win before: the 100m and the 4x100m relay.

In 2001, Florida was one of only two schools to have at least one athlete qualified for the NCAA Championship meet in every event 800m and lower. This all came just months after freshman Rickey Harris ran a then-school-record 45.78 to win the NCAA Indoor 400m championship. Harris' time was the third-fastest in the world during the season and claimed Florida's first indoor individual national title since 1990.

In 2002, Harris won the 400m hurdles championship at the NCAA outdoor meet, giving UF its first-ever title in the event and becoming the first double NCAA champion under Holloway. Harris set a then-school record in the process and his time of 48.16 ranked as the third-fastest final time in meet history. He then went on to finish second in the 400m dash, becoming the second male athlete in NCAA history to earn All-America honors in both events in the same year, and the first to do so since 1963.

Holloway's reputation as a sprint coach was solidified before then, though. One need not look further than his squad's performance at the 2000 NCAA Outdoor Championships, when his athletes won two national titles and scored a school-record 42 points by themselves. The Gators' 4x100m squad cruised to the fastest time ever by a collegiate squad that included a lineup comprised solely of American citizens, and earned the school's first national championship in the event. Bernard Williams capped an astounding first season at the NCAA Division I level with Florida's first 100m national title.

Earlier in the year at the 2000 NCAA indoor meet, sophomore John Capel equaled the American and collegiate record of 20.26 in the 200m. He was the only collegian to break the 20-second barrier that year and finished with the second-fastest time in the world before eventually making the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team.

Holloway began setting the foundation for the Gators' emergence on the national sprint scene from his first year as a coach during the 1996 season. Since then, sprinters have earned 150 of the 214 All-America honors bestowed on the Florida track and field team, including an award in every sprint event - indoors and out.

Also boasting international experience, Holloway served as the head coach of the U.S. team at the NACAC Under-23 Championships in 2004, where American athletes guided by Holloway combined to win 27 of the 40 events.

In addition to how his athletes fared at the 2004 Olympics, Capel won the gold medal in the 200m and was the leadoff leg of the gold-medal winning 4x100m relay team that also included former Gator Bernard Williams at the 2003 World Championships in Paris.

At the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials, Holloway-coached prodigies won both semifinal heats of the 200m before Capel grabbed the victory in one of the most anticipated track match-ups in the preceding four years. Capel defeated world-record holder Michael Johnson and "the fastest man in the world," Maurice Greene, not only in the finals but also in the preceding semis to earn the top 200m spot on America's team for the Sydney Olympic Games.

Florida alumnus Dennis Mitchell was working under Holloway's direction when he captured the 100m title at the 1992 and 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials. During the summer of 1997, Florida alumnus Mark Everett posted the second-fastest all-time 800m performance by an American when he clocked a 1:43.20 at a meet in Line, Austria, while working under Holloway.

Having served as the girls and boys head coach at Buchholz High School from 1985-1995, Holloway was no stranger to the tradition-rich Gainesville track & field community prior to being named a Florida assistant. During his 11-year tenure, Holloway guided the Bobcats' programs to a total of 19 county, 17 district, 14 regional and eight state titles, (including cross country).

In all, 18 of 20 boys' school records and 14 of 19 girls' records were broken during the Holloway Era. Among the long list of accomplishments Holloway contributed to the Buchholz program, the school's 1995 milestones could arguably be his most lasting achievements. Holloway led both the boys' and girls' Buchholz teams to state titles in 1995, marking the first time such a feat had been accomplished by one coach.

At the beginning of his coaching career at Buchholz, Holloway worked as a graduate assistant for two years (1986‑87) under then-Florida women's head track & field coach Lyle Knudson. During this time, Holloway coached UF's 4x800m foursome of Sandra and Sonja Braasch, Chris Crowther and Susan Nash to a world-record time of 8:29.35 and a U.S. National indoor title.

Holloway is married to the former Angela Fitts. They have a daughter, Michele, a son, Michael II (MJ), and three grandchildren.